Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

The conventional belief among retail marketers is that Gen-Y consumers (especially teenaged girls) have zero sense of privacy and that they will—and do—share every aspect of their lives with anyone online. Well, if a new study out of Europe is to be believed, those girls may be a bit more private than their personaes would imply. It suggests that the teens will indeed share anything, but only with a relatively small circle of friends.

The report comes from Euro RSCG: “Although the average teen girl might have more than 100 friends on Facebook, she focuses on sharing key information with the one or two people closest to her,” the report said. “When they find a good deal, teen girls want to share it—but they’re more interested in tipping off a friend than in broadcasting the information. Shopping with just her best friend or sister, a teen girl will spend 23 percent more than when shopping with two or more friends. Shopping with a boy, she will spend less than half of what she spends with her close friend or sister. And shopping with her mother, who provides access to a larger budget and is also a key member of her intimate circle, she will spend triple the amount she spends with a group of friends.”